Thermal deposition growth and luminescence properties of single-crystalline V2O5 elongated nanostructures

Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) nanorods and nanotips have been grown without a catalyst by a thermal deposition method using compacted V2O5 powder as the starting material. The tips, with diameters of about 50-100 nm, grow on the top of rods of larger size. Transmission electron microscopy shows that the obtained structures are single crystalline. The luminescence behavior of the nanostructures has been investigated by cathodoluminescence (CL) in the scanning electron microscope. CL reveals that the presence of nanostructures leads to changes in the spectral distribution of the emission. The obtained results are discussed by considering the band structure of V2O5.